This series of photos provides a virtual tour around the named places in Branch. The place names, some static, some changing provide a glimpse at the close relationship between people, land and ocean, and point toward a rich knowledge-base on how...

Branch has a rich landscape where the mouth of Branch River opens out into a wide valley along the shoreline of Branch Cove. The Naked Man is the highest point of land in the Easter Cove. The term naked man is the local term for an Irish cairn (or...

Oral tradition has it that several years after settling in Branch, Thomas Nash returned to Ireland to perform his Easter duties, there being no priests in the area at the time. On his return, he was joined by two friends, Bill English and Nix...

When you pass the Corner moving away from the Gut, you are Over the Road. Patrick Roche (1803-1892) the first Roche in Branch married Bill Englishs daughter, likely building close to the Englishs, just Over the Road from the Corner.

The road on the Easter Cove Hill is part of Route 92 locally known as North Harbour Road. Route 92 connects Branch with communities at the head of St. Marys Bay and was completed in 1975. Route 100 which meets Route 92 in the Place, connects...

The Hayjers Rock crowns the Wester Cove as it sits at Branch Head. The rugged shoreline bends in toward the Landwash and the Gut where the River channels into the ocean. Across the Gut, the shoreline of the Easter Cove starts on Back of the Beach...

The early schools in Branch were located in peoples houses. By the early-1900s, this large schoolhouse - across from the location of the current church - was the centre of education for many Branch children.

Branch is home to more than the human element. Fairies and those from other realms are known to inhabit places like the River Styx. Perhaps the fairies followed the first Irish settlers? The people of Branch have a respectful relationship with...

Two Gulches adjacent to the Flats on the east side of the River provide valuable farming land as well as great places for the nature lover to explore. Englishs Gulch, the gulch closer to the ocean, was one of the tracts of land cleared in Branch in...

The Catholic religion has played a central role in the lives of Branch residents. The Plot marks the site of the first Church in Branch, built in 1848 at the Gut. The third and current church was built in 1983 and overlooks the Place from Peters...

The Hayjers Rock, standing solitary at the tip of the Wester Cove, is the iconic landmark of Branch - a reminder of the play between land and ocean, and a bedrock symbol of Home for generations. In the time of the first settlers, this rock was...

Branch River, known locally as the River, flows fourteen miles from its headwaters and branches at its mouth in the heart of Branch. Oral tradition has it that Thomas Nash was lured to Branch partly by salmon in the River. Today, Branch River is a...

In the 1930s and 1940s, during the tumultuous years of the Depression and World War II, considerable agricultural land was cleared in Branch. The Ground, just up the River from Roches Gulch, was cleared by and for war veterans returning home to...

In addition to a magical place for the young-hearted nature lover, the Rocks are home to a protected fossil site, remnants of life dating back 500 million years. Terry Fletcher writes, Since the description of the Cambrian trilobite Paradoxides...

The Place refers to the main cluster of houses west of the River. Since the 1970s, there has been considerable residential development in the Easter Cove (not shown). People living in the Easter Cove will say they are going over to the Place when...

There are many different types of hills in and around Branch knobs, hommocks, pinnacles, lookouts, knaps - each with their own characteristics and uses. The Foxs Knob is the highest point of land on the west side of St. Marys Bay. Hills are great...

John Englishs Gully was dammed in 1949 to provide the first municipal water supply. Marina Gambin writes her fathers response to her inquiry on Englishs identity, A fellow by the name of John English used to go out there in the summertime and strip...